From WIRED a couple of weeks ago:
"Ultimately, it wasn’t the internet that killed Maplin. It was Brexit. Sort of. “The business has worked hard over recent months to mitigate a combination of impacts from sterling devaluation post Brexit, a weak consumer environment and the withdrawal of credit insurance,” CEO Graham Harris said in a statement.
Online shopping definitely played a part, but it wasn’t the fatal blow. That’s a view shared by administrator PwC, which blames “a slowdown in consumer spending and more expensive imports as the pound has weakened” rather than Maplin’s outmoded business model. But now, if it is to have any chance of surviving, Maplin has to belatedly change."
The Register two days ago, under headline "UK Tat Bazaar Enters Final Death Spiral":
"Closing-down sale posters are being plastered over the shop windows of moribund Brit 'leccy tat emporium Maplin Electronics, but even now the discounted goods can still be bought more cheaply from rivals.
(...)
The sales promotion has seen product prices slashed in-store by between 10 to 50 per cent, but even factoring this into the equation, seven out of eight products El Reg compared can be procured more cheaply on the Interweb."
Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk